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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24652792">Never Stood a Chance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dsrtchck/pseuds/dsrtchck'>dsrtchck</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Femslash, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:28:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,954</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24652792</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dsrtchck/pseuds/dsrtchck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You were controlling, she is not. You could barely touch me, she can't keep her hands off me. You didn't want forever, she wants that and more.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bella Swan/Tanya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I originally posted this on FF under the same name. I'm re-posting this story here now, but I'm working through edits and cleaning some things up. Eventually, very slowly, I'll be posting all my stories here. There aren't major changes to the overall story line, just some fine tuning that was long over due.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the first day of school, in a new town, in the middle of the first semester of school. This wasn’t the first time I had uprooted my life to move to a new town, but it was the first time I had done so with a parent. Charlie had thought it would be a good idea to move us both to a new town in a way to help me move on and to forget what I had lost. In all honesty, I would have thought he would have shipped me off to Renee; instead though, he apparently wanted to keep me with him instead of losing me again.</p>
<p>So, Charlie came home one day and told me to pack everything I had because we were both moving to Alaska; to another small town. Apparently Charlie really didn’t like big cities. I had to look up the town of Healy to figure out where it was. Aside from going to another town that most people wouldn’t know existed, I really didn’t want to leave Forks. I had everything I needed in Forks. Everything I had to remember them by was in Forks: their house, the Pack and more importantly, our meadow. Without those reminders that they were in fact real and were part of my life at one point, I wasn’t sure what I could do to keep their memory alive. But even though I never wanted to forget them, I didn’t want to be part of their world anymore. I knew it would hurt much more when I would be left behind again.</p>
<p>Jacob had already ditched me before for some misguided reason that he wasn’t safe for me to be around, but that just wasn’t true. He didn’t realize that I trusted him entirely; but he didn’t see it that way. Perhaps it was a supernatural thing that they all believed that they needed to be around humans, but couldn’t be around them at the same time because they were afraid to hurt a human. Either way, when Jacob tried to ditch me, and even after I forced him to start hanging out with me again, it wasn’t the same. There was always a tension there that made me feel bad about being human.</p>
<p>That was why, even though initially I wanted to, I figured it would likely be better for me in the long run to just leave Forks and its’ supernatural magnet behind. So Charlie and I packed all of our stuff up and left for the town of Healy, Alaska. The only thing that I had left that would remind me of anything supernatural was my truck. It was the same truck that helped me figure out the Cullen’s secret and allowed me access to their world. I told myself that the only real reason I kept it was because I couldn’t afford a new vehicle and that I wouldn’t want Charlie to drive me around everywhere.</p>
<p>Just a few days after moving to our new home, I was expected to start school. Which was more nerve wracking than it was the first time I had joined a new school in the middle of the semester last time. It was already lunch time on my first day and it felt like déjà vu. I had already managed to get a new set of ‘friends’ that kept me from brooding by myself and becoming the schools new loner. This group reminded me a lot of my old group of friends. I hadn’t learned most of their names yet as I honestly hadn’t planned on being best friends with any of them. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood to make new friends like I had wanted to when I had first moved to Forks. But I at least needed to try and remember their names to be polite and not completely stand offish; that was the whole reason Charlie had wanted us to move in the first place, because I had alienated all my friends in Forks. I shouldn’t let that happen here and have Charlie think that uprooting both of our lives was a waste of time and money.</p>
<p>It was kind of funny how I associated them with my old friends from Forks, making it harder to remember their actual names. The ‘Mike’ of the group was much smoother than the one from Forks. He was even able to wrap his arm around my shoulders for a little bit before I realized what he was doing and shoved his arm off. He seemed a lot more tactile than the person I was comparing him to. But, just like his counterpart, he didn’t really seem to see that there were some girls that weren’t very interested, but at least his attention wasn’t solely focused on one girl; he was good at annoying all the girls.</p>
<p>The ‘Jessica’ and ‘Lauren’ of this group were bitchier than their counter parts from Forks. The good thing about these two though, was that while they weren’t afraid to point out anyone’s flaws, they didn’t really spend that much time with the people I sat with. It seemed like the two girls floated to different groups with one other girl that I didn’t know the name of either. I wasn’t sure if they did that because they weren’t really welcome at all the groups because of how rude they were, or if they just thought they were so popular they couldn’t decide which group to grace their presence with. Regardless, at least I didn’t have to suffer their company all the time and they were easily distracted by other groups.</p>
<p>The ‘Eric’ of the group was just as nerdy, but seemed to embrace his nerdiness a lot more and seemed to gain confidence from it. He definitely knew he was nerdy and he seemingly had no shame to show it. He wasn’t as afraid as Eric was and didn’t seem to care about what others though like Eric did. In fact, this kid was actually dating the ‘Angela’ of the group; something Eric hadn’t managed to do… at least the last time I had spoken with them from before the Cullen’s left, he hadn’t managed that.</p>
<p>The ‘Angela’, whose name was the only one I had actually bothered to remember because of how nice she was, was just as quiet. The big difference though was that Grace, her real name, wasn’t afraid to tell her friends ‘Lauren’ and ‘Jessica’ off when they were being a bitch. I guess Grace’s family was friends with their families or something and that was really the only reason the two still hung around Grace on occasion, but that didn’t seem to stop Grace from putting them in their place when it was called for. She seemed to be just as quiet as Angela, but not as afraid to stand up against ‘Jessica’ or ‘Lauren’.</p>
<p>Thinking of the people, specifically the humans, I had left behind in Forks made me more depressed. I knew I had grown apart from them these past couple months, but it still hurt to leave them; especially Angela. She had still tried to be friends when I was ignoring everyone before we left Forks. It was sad that I wasn’t going to see any of them again; at least they knew that the Cullen’s were real and that I hadn’t made everything up about the perfect family.</p>
<p>“Bella, the bell rang; aren’t we going to walk to math together?” Grace asked, effectively breaking me from my inner musings. Just like Angela. She was polite enough to not point out the fact that I completely zoned out during practically all of lunch. I’m glad she didn’t ditch me. While this school wasn’t as big as the one in Phoenix, finding a classroom was always easier when there was someone showing you.</p>
<p>“Sorry.” I half-heartedly mumbled as I gathered my stuff so we could finally leave. She gave me a reassuring smile which meant she wasn’t bothered, before we stood to throw away our trash and to go to class. The walk to math class was spent in a comfortable silence while we maneuvered our way through the clutter of what was commonly known as the student body. Why everyone always had to stand to talk to their friends clustered in groups in the middle of the hallway, I would never know. We were able to get to class just as the bell rang; I guess Grace was able to get me out of my thoughts just in time to not be late.</p>
<p>As I walked into the classroom, there were two things that I noticed right away. The first being that the only available seat was in the back behind ‘Lauren’. Funny, when I had asked earlier if someone could show me to class, ‘Lauren’ had made it a point to say she didn’t have any classes with the new kid. With how welcoming she had been so far, I wouldn’t put it past her if she tried to trip me trying to get to my seat behind her.</p>
<p>The second thing I noticed though, that was more important than being behind ‘Lauren’, was that there was a pair of very un-human like golden eyes looking directly at me from where the, usually very human, teacher would usually sit.</p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There’s a vampire in my class. There’s a vampire teaching my class. The only good thing I can think about this situation is that at least it’s a vegetarian vampire. But even though I knew that this strawberry blonde vampire wasn’t a threat to anyone here, I knew I couldn’t let her know I knew what she was. Rosalie had been very clear about there being rules and that me knowing about them broke those rules. I didn’t know what the punishment was for breaking the rule, but I knew it couldn’t be anything good.</p>
<p>After a brief pause in the doorway from the shock of seeing her, I stumbled my way forward so she could do her normal teacher duties and assign me the only free desk in class and to tell me anything I needed to know about what was happening.</p>
<p>“Um, I’m Isabella Swan, I just transferred here.” I told her while handing her a piece of paper to sign so I could prove that I went to all my classes.</p>
<p>When she took the paper from me, her fingers grazed my fingers a little, causing a little shiver to go through me because my body had apparently forgotten how cold they were. At the same time though, I swore I saw her eyes darken, I hoped that was because she hadn’t meant to touch her and was upset she let that happen. I didn’t want her to be affected to my blood like Edward was; I didn’t want a repeat of what happened with James.</p>
<p>“Isabella.” The vampire repeated, her voice coming out almost like a purr. Her deeper tone sent another chill down my back, but in an oddly good way that I wasn’t expecting. “I was under the impression that you preferred to be called Bella?” She asked with a small smirk.</p>
<p>How could she know that? I only tell that to people I’ve met or when a teacher asks me if I prefer to go by another name since all teachers seemed to know that most kids don’t like to go by their full name if it could be shortened. I know I hadn’t told her my preference for my name; perhaps she heard through the students that I preferred to be called Bella? But did teachers really listen to student gossip like that? Maybe her vampire hearing made that possible.</p>
<p>She smirked at how obviously she had thrown me off by that information, but didn’t offer an explanation to her knowledge; not that I expected her to. I opened my mouth to ask how she knew I preferred the shortened version of my name, but the bell rang before I could get a sound out much less decide on how I was going to phrase the question.</p>
<p>“Well, Bella, my name is Tanya Denali. I will teach you all you need to know. Why don’t you take a seat, right there?” Ms. Denali said as she pointed to the only seat I could take.</p>
<p>Her name sounded familiar, like I’ve heard it mentioned before. But for the life of me, I couldn’t place where I might have heard it before. But that was the least curious thing that she left me thinking about; the way she phrased that she would be teaching me math was definitely not the normal thing a teacher would tell a new student. Her phrasing was nearly as odd as the fact that she was a vampire and teaching math.</p>
<p>“O-okay.” I stuttered, my stumbling to make sense of what I was hearing from her.</p>
<p>Her eyes, even though I had seen several pairs of the same color eyes in the past, her eyes stood out more than any other pair of golden eyes I’d seen before. Such a similar pair of eyes had caused me so much pain and heartache. But this pair, while seemingly so similar, couldn’t be more different. I didn’t know why or how I thought that, but they were.</p>
<p>What I was sure about though, was that I needed to avoid this vampire as much as I could. I was a senior now, with less than half a semester to go. I knew that Charlie had really bad timing about deciding when we should move to ‘help me get out of my funk’. I knew with so little time until I was completely on my own, I couldn’t afford to be wrapped up into their world again. It hurts too much to get to know them and then for them to decide that I was only human and didn’t fit in with them. They would leave; but when they inevitably did, I wasn’t sure if there was something I should be worried about because I knew their secret. As long as they didn’t know I knew about them, then I should be safe; which was why I had to keep my distance.</p>
<p>Once I realized that I was just staring at her instead of going to my seat, I blushed and quickly moved to my seat. I did my best to avoid looking at anyone in embarrassment from staring at the teacher for what I’m sure was longer than considered normal.</p>
<p>The first half of the class was easy; all we did was take notes. Math had never been my forte, so I did my best to pay close attention to what the teacher was saying; which wasn’t that hard since it was a vampire that was teaching. My grades, especially math, had started to drop because of how unenthusiastic I was about everything; I really didn’t see the point in doing anything when I didn’t have my recently gained family. But now that I didn’t have the sympathy of the staff and my dad’s chief of police shadow protecting me, I had to really work on my grades to make sure I wouldn’t get in trouble and could still get into some college somewhere.</p>
<p>Taking notes was something that I hadn’t suffered through my near self-isolation though. I managed to take really good notes because it insured the teachers wouldn’t pick on me during class or scold me for not paying attention. The notes were a really good cover because I could mindlessly write down what the teacher said while thinking about different scenarios that involved Edward showing up in the middle of class and groveling for forgiveness for ever leaving in the first place.</p>
<p>This class was really different though. While I wanted to take good notes and actually pay attention to what was going on because I really did need to not fail any class, I found not paying attention to anything Ms. Denali said really hard. It seemed that, just like me, the entire class was practically enthralled in everything the vampire had to say. I think this was the quietest I had ever heard a class before and I’m sure that had everything to do with the vampire in front.</p>
<p>Once the vampire was done giving notes and did a couple practice problems, she gave us some problems to do on our own while she wrote down the homework assignment. Apparently we were to work on our problems on our own, ask her if we had any questions and then class would be over. That seemed pretty typical of math classes. It was a little eerie how quiet the class was once Ms. Denali said to work quietly on our problems. I was almost expecting students to start talking once she had stopped talking, but no one said a word; I couldn’t even hear the normal whispers I had come to expect in all my classes at all times.</p>
<p>I kept my attention on my work, wanting to get all the problems done and hopefully started on homework before the class was up. The less I had to do after school the better. I was so focused on my work and ignoring the vampire, I hadn’t realized she had started to walk around the class until I jumped from the sudden hand I felt on my shoulder. I looked up at the sudden contact and saw Ms. Denali smirking at me from her new spot right next to me. I couldn’t even pay attention to what she was saying because I was too focused on how close she was to me and how nice she smelled. I think that is the oddest thought I’ve ever had about a teacher before.</p>
<p>“Does that make more sense?” Ms. Denali asked, looking me straight in the eye from her crouched position next to my desk so that we were eye level. I couldn’t help but blush under her scrutiny that seemed entirely too focused for a teacher towards a student.</p>
<p>“Um, yeah.” I answered, unable to talk properly around her or willing to admit that I hadn’t really heard anything she said.</p>
<p>She smirked at my answer, almost like she knew that I was so flustered by her that I hadn’t actually heard anything she said. She straightened her stance from leaning over my desk to stand next to me and address the class with her arm still around my shoulders.</p>
<p>“I expect all of your homework to be on my desk by the start of class tomorrow. Remember, if you need any help at all, I’m available by email and can often be found after school.”</p>
<p>With perfect timing that only a vampire could achieve, as soon as she was done talking, the bell to release us rang. Ms. Denali’s arm stayed around my shoulders, officially and silently keeping me in my seat until all the other students left the room. Grace was one of the last students out of the room and seemed to have been waiting for me to leave, but when it became apparent that either me or Ms. Denali was moving from our spots, she left as well.</p>
<p>“Can I go now?” I asked, not meaning to sound rude but nervous about having to be alone with the vampire.</p>
<p>She finally took her arm from around me and then moved to lean against the desk in front of me, staring at me with intensely dark eyes. I probably wasn’t in the best position to be in with a possibly upset vampire. I was alone with a vampire that seemed to be losing control of her emotions; if her darkening eyes were anything to go by.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard a lot about you Bella.” Ms. Denali finally said after a second or two of staring at each other. I was almost about to just leave without her saying anything at all before she spoke up.</p>
<p>“Okay?” I asked, not sure if I should be worried about what she heard about me and from who.</p>
<p>“When I was first told about you, maybe a year or so ago, I was intrigued.” She seemed like she was going to continue but abruptly stopped when another student for her next class walked in. “I look forward to getting to know you better.”</p>
<p>I would have asked her to elaborate what she meant by that, but if I wasted any more time, I might be late for my next class. We were only given so much time before the next class started and I still needed to actually find where it was. I quickly packed up all my things as Ms. Denali seemed very content to keep leaning against the desk and watch me do. In my rush to leave, I nearly ran into a student. As I started to make my way into the hall, I could just barely hear a very distinctive sound of a vampire laughing at me.</p>
<p>My last classes were over fairly quickly. To be honest, I didn’t even really remember what we had gone over in the classes. Every though I had seemed to circle around Ms. Denali. No matter how much I told myself to stop thinking about her and to pay attention to my current class, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from drifting back to her. There were so many questions I wanted to ask her. I wanted a straight answer on how she knew I preferred to be called Bella. I wanted to know if she knew the same vampires I knew and if she was still in contact with them if she did. I still wanted answers from the Cullen’s. I needed to know why they all so easily left and if Ms. Denali was going to be my only way to those answers, because who knew if I were to ever run into another vampire and live, I needed to talk with Ms. Denali to get those answers.</p>
<p>But I had decided to not be in the supernatural world anymore. As much as I wanted to get those answers, to know if she really did have a link to the Cullen’s, I had made myself a promise. If I attempted to talk with her, I would be in their world again and that was the last thing I wanted. I barely survived the last time I was in their world; I didn’t think I would survive again.</p>
<p>So, no, I wouldn’t ask her any questions that didn’t have anything to do with her world. I would only talk to her if I needed to because she was my teacher. I turned to look at her, if only to confirm that I had heard her laughing at me because I was rushing to get out of her classroom, she was already sitting at her desk and looking at me. The wink she gave me only affirmed my thoughts and made me move further away from her.</p>
<p>I met up with Grace and the group as I left the building to head towards the parking lot. As the group started breaking apart to get to their own vehicles, I realized that the student parking lot was right next to the teacher parking lot. I realized that the same time I felt someone staring at me. I would have guessed it was ‘Mike’, but he was next to me, talking to me. I carefully looked around to try and find who I felt was watching me, though I already had a guess on who it could be. At the edge of the parking lot, closest to the student parking lot, I spotted Ms. Denali staring at me with what seemed to be a very intense look. I thought she would be in her classroom helping someone or grading papers or something.</p>
<p>“So, will you?” ‘Mike’ asked.</p>
<p>Wait, what did he ask? I was too focused on finding who was looking at me and not paying attention to the people I was walking with. I hadn’t even noticed that it was just him and me walking.</p>
<p>“Huh?” I asked, finally turning my attention to him to try to figure out what was going on.</p>
<p>Something told me that I wished that anyone else was here with us so that I wouldn’t have to listen to what he was asking me.</p>
<p>“Well, a group of us, Grace, Zach, Sarah and even Lindsey are all bowling tonight. We were talking about it during lunch; but you seemed kind of out of it. Do you want to go with us? I think Sarah and probably Lindsey if she goes, will be bringing dates and, I don’t know, maybe you can be mine?” ‘Mike’ rambled on.</p>
<p>Well, at least I was able to get most everyone’s names. Now I just had to figure what his name was before he found out that I didn’t remember.</p>
<p>Wait, did he just ask me out?</p>
<p>“Listen…” It would be nice to know his name right now. “I just got out of a long-term relationship. I’m really not looking to get into another relationship.”</p>
<p>“Oh, well, that’s okay. We can just go as friends then?” He asked, not at all swayed by my rejection.</p>
<p>I knew that if I agreed, Charlie wouldn’t be as worried about me. The whole reason we moved was because he was worried. If I started to act like a normal teenager that didn’t just have their second family abandon them, then perhaps I could move on.</p>
<p>Just like Charlie wanted.</p>
<p>Like Edward wanted.</p>
<p>“Okay, I guess. We can go as friends.” I hesitantly said, not really sure I wanted to go.</p>
<p>We exchanged phone numbers so he could text me all the necessary information later once I knew I could go. I just had to get Charlie to give permission. It was a school night, so there was a chance that Charlie wouldn’t let me go; especially since I was so new to this school and because the semester was almost over. But he had also been trying to get me to hang out with friends since the Cullen’s left me, so there was also a decent chance that he would let me. I wasn’t sure if his need to get me to act more normal or his parental needs were stronger.</p>
<p>I left the school grounds before someone else could distract me any longer. I didn’t think anyone would, but what kid would want to risk having to stay later than necessary?<br/>About an hour after I got home, I had my homework and chores done and had even gotten all the needed info for bowling night from ‘Mike’. Since I was new, he pushed on giving me a ride since I didn’t actually know where we were going. Ignoring the fact that I had GPS I could use for directions, he argued that saving gas money was every kids dream. Eventually I just gave in because I actually really didn’t mind if he drove. I couldn’t imagine the night going so bad that I would want to leave earlier than he would.</p>
<p>“Bells! I’m home!” Charlie yelled as he walked through the door.</p>
<p>I walked downstairs to meet him as I was running out of time to ask him before my ride showed up. There was also still a risk that I could talk myself out of it since I didn’t really care to bond with people that I would only see for a couple months before school was over.</p>
<p>“Hey Dad. How was work?” I asked as I reached downstairs.</p>
<p>“Same old.” Charlie answered as he took off his boots and duty belt. “How ‘bout you? How was the first day? Make any new friends?” He nearly sounded like a high school gossiper. That definitely foreshadowed what his answer would be.</p>
<p>“School was school; never much ever really changes with that.” Except for the species of teachers apparently, but he didn’t need to know that. “There actually are a few people that I sat with during lunch that talked me into going bowling with them tonight; is that okay?” I asked.</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure who seemed more surprised that I was asked to hang out with people, me or Charlie.</p>
<p>His face lit up after the shock wore off, clearly happy that I just seemed to have validated his moving us since I was asking to go hang out with other people.</p>
<p>“I think that’s a great idea Bells.” Charlie with said with a clearly pleased smile. “I’ll leave some money on the counter for you that should cover some games and some food and whatnot.” He said all too eagerly.</p>
<p>“Awesome, thanks.” I said while trying to keep as much sarcasm from my voice as possible. “One of the kids said he would give me a ride, so I’ll just wait upstairs until he gets here.”</p>
<p>I left him to his own devices as I went back upstairs before he could ask me any questions about my ride… like what his name was.</p>
<p>I was more than okay with going out in the clothes I wore to school, but I wasn’t going to wait downstairs like I was actually eager for my ride to show up. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long.</p>
<p>“Bella! Matt is here.” Charlie yelled from downstairs soon after the doorbell had rang.</p>
<p>I did my best to muster up at least a somewhat convincing face that would look like I was at least looking forward to bowling at least a little.</p>
<p>I could already tell tonight was going to drag on forever.</p>
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